Long time no see. The last couple weeks have been a bit hectic actually. The end of the dry season in Brasilia is not easy peasy, so there are always some health issues. Plus, there was a 2 days strike (much needed) at the university for budget and politics matters. Last week, I was out of town in a Translation event (Entrad 2019) at João Pessoa, a beautiful place at the northeast of Brazil. This way, I missed some Writing 3 classes.
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| Tons of coffee involved |
Even consulting the Edmodo site for follow ups, I feel a bit lost by not attending classes. Right this moment, I'm trying to find out the topics for the first essay assignment (a big event in a writing class). I still have a week to complete the assignment, though, so it's all good!
There were some challenges in the trip academically speaking. First, on Monday, I had an online test. After a busy day and the opening event at night, it was a real challenge to concentrate in order to deliver a good test - this one for the other writing class I'm attending this semester. It is worthy to highlight that I got lost 2 blocs from my hotel (seriously), tripped on a sidewalk, hurt (just a bit) my recovering knee and was, for that, distressed to say the least (I'm getting really old - sorry for the tragicomedy, but it is an important part of the scenario :). So, deadline ending, I still had nothing ready... It was a matter of breathing slowly and trying to do the best with the short time I had left.
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| "Killing me Softly..." is the song theme for this image |
On Tuesday, my presentation was on the first day of seminars, early in the morning, and it was not easy. I usually don't get nervous on presentations, but I was a bit apprehensive on this one. And I was right to be anxious, because there were some issues on the session, with a bad response by one of the monitors about my work (and I was not talking about my master subject, which is very polemic). The sense of failure was not a small one, and the day followed in a tense rhythm for me. I'm grateful for my lovely roommate and my classmates on this day, they were very supportive <3
On Wednesday, another presentation, this time for a friend who could not attend the event. In front of two of very known Translation authors in Brazil (both quoted by my friend in his work), I had to play a puzzle with the mismatched pages of my friends paper - which I was reading as a presentation. I kept my cool I don't know how (this post is becoming a confessional journal, I know :). At the end, everything was okay.
On Thursday, the tension was still alive for my roommate's presentation, that went beautifully with a great response from the audience. At night, it was time to breath easily and celebrate.
Now I'm back to my busy routine and here I am, finally catching up on the tasks for the next week.
The first one was to complete the exercises about Collocations - a subject that I'd have never studied before, one that carries many challenges for the writer. I'm glad to see that I'm not entirely ignorant on the matter, even if there's a lot to improve still. I mean, a lot lot.
As a reflection about writing, I'm also happy to overcome the challenges presented to this moment. The test on Monday was a writing challenge, as I had to summarize a 20 pages text in a short amount of time, feeling very tired and with an oral presentation early on the next day. Yes, maybe I'm exaggerating the difficulty here, but I'm proud anyway :)
So, now I just have to figure out the essay topics and get my hands on the writing.
That's it for now, folks.
Stay tuned :)
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| Greetings from Jampa (João Pessoa/Paraíba, 2019) |
PS: Do you still remember that Amélie Poulain is the inspirational image for this (and the other 5) blogs that I sign? So, she was there, in Jampa, with the appropriate costume.
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| Amélie Cangaceira |
PPS: More images from the Entrad trip:
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| A metalinguistic picture CCHLA-UFPB (2019) |
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| Find the cat...There's one right there! |
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| The last view of a busy and challenging, but nice week |
PPPS: Okay, so I just found out that Thiago, the teacher of the Writing 3 class, and the reason why this blog exists, saw my presentation on the Entrad event. As this has turned out a confessional post, I must say: "Thanks God", because I would be more nervous that I was. Said that, I should add that I'm actually really sorry for not noticing Thiago's presence on the auditory. I told him that I'm not usually anxious about presenting a work. It is not hard for me, and not because I'm too sure of myself. I really think those kind of events are a part of our education and knowledge construction. So I talk about my work with an open mind and heart on those kind of events. This time, however, the experience was a bit traumatic. But it is a past sense, and all is well now - I can put the whole experience under another perspective. This way, I'm really grateful for such a good opinion. Thanks, Thiago, to take the time to see my presentation and giving me such lovely feedback!
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